KISSIMMEE, Fla. — If Mitt Romney is to overcome his problem with Latino voters, he is going to have to start by changing a lot of minds in Central Florida.

A crucial battleground in a vital swing state, the region is home to growing numbers of non-Cuban Latinos who have always been viewed by Republicans as open to their economic and social views but reluctant to back the party in part because of its position on illegal immigration. With Romney having taken especially hawkish stances on immigration during the primary season, he and his campaign are now trying to shift the debate to what they feel will be friendlier terrain — jobs.

But the challenge in Central Florida is clear.

Gladys Thayer, a native of Panama who is a registered Republican, is receptive to Romney’s message on the economy but did not like his tough talk on immigration.

“I definitely think he needs to lean more towards helping the Hispanic community,” said Thayer, a real estate agent.

Romney acknowledged his problem with voters like Thayer when he told donors in Florida recently that if President Barack Obama keeps his commanding advantage among Latinos, it “spells doom for us.”

He campaigned this week with Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, a Cuban-American, and signaled Monday that he may be open to compromise on the Dream Act, a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children.

But whether Romney can make real inroads among Latino voters in Florida and in swing states across the nation remains an open question.

Though Cuban-Americans in South Florida favored the Republican candidate, John McCain, in 2008, Obama won 57 percent of Latino votes in the state thanks to Puerto Ricans and immigrants from Latin America.

“The question is, can the Republicans change that?” said Dario Moreno, a political scientist at Florida International University. “If they perform as they did four years ago, they will lose Florida.”

Much of the fight will be waged in and around Orlando, a region where population growth led to the creation of a new congressional district for 2012 in which Latinos, many of Puerto Rican heritage, are 41 percent of the voting-age population.

The problem for Romney is that though Latinos are suffering disproportionately, and like other voters they say jobs and the economy are their top concerns, polls show that they are not blaming Obama.

Obama retained the support of 67 percent of registered Latino voters in a nationwide telephone poll released last week by the Pew Research Center, the same historically high figure he achieved in the 2008 election, according to the exit poll conducted by Edison Research.

"I fully support the principles behind Senate Bill 1: to defeat efforts by the president and Congress to undermine vital federal protections that protect clean air, clean water and endangered species," Newsom said in a written statement.